Kmart T-Shirt Protest Continues; Kmart Pulls Shirt

A “domestic violence” t-shirt that has been causing some uproar in Maine has sparked protest in Toledo, Ohio. From the awesomely named Toledo Blade:

A T-shirt sold at Kmart stores that shows a boy pushing down a girl and calls the action “Problem Solved” drew more than 50 protesters to the sidewalk in front of the chain’s Alexis Road store yesterday afternoon.

After initially refusing, Kmart has now agreed to pull the shirt.

Spokesman Kim Freely said: “We’ve heard and respect the opinions of our customers and the item is no longer available at Kmart. And we have no plans to reorder it.”

She said Kmart had received a few complaints from other areas; the T-shirt was sold nationwide. But Toledo was the only city where she’d heard about a protest.

We suppose this proves that if all else fails, picketing can get it done.—MEGHANN MARCO

I really dont agree with the censorship that was displayed with this protest. The issue with the walmart shirt was because they said that they would remove it and hadnt. But removing an item because somebody took it personally is kind of stupid if you ask me.

Television and video games and t-shirts do not dictate our actions. I am still a strong believer in personal choice, my actions are not controlled by outside influences, if I do something wrong it is because I chose to, not because the devil made me do it.

Well satire, you had a nice run, but we all knew it would someday come to an end. In today’s politically correct environment, we don’t have the time nor inclination to entertain your jest. No we have serious matters to attend to and we will not rest until every individual born into this world (or maybe just the United States) is able to die without suffering some sort of indignity. Sure it was all in fun, but these days people very emotionally sensitive and we can’t risk you upsetting someone in the name of humor.

Is there absolutely no place for absurdity anymore? Do the protesters believe that someone will actually use this tee-shirt as a template for committing a crime?

These protesters of absurdity are, themselves, absurd. The tee-shirt should be re-issued with black bars covering all the content and a note at the bottom that says “Redacted due to customer complaints”.

It’s interesting to me that folks run to the cover of “political correctness” when they don’t want to deal with a serious issue. Try substituting a group you belong to for the woman in the picture. For example, would you be concerned about a shirt that showed a white police officer and a black male arguing in the first panel and the black male being beaten by the officer in the second with the caption “Problem solved?” Claiming it is just a joke, it can’t be taken seriously, etc. is a cop out (no pun intended). Attacking people who raise an objection to “humor” like this by dismissing their concerns as political correctness just avoids the serious underlying issue–in this case violence against women.

I can’t wait until there’s a strong movement against appearance. Not good appearance or bad appearance, just appearance. That way we can all sit in our homes and not interact with each other out of fear that our mere appearance will be offensive to someone.

I’ve been short all my life. I know that there are times where these facts have not played into my favor. Yes, I got bullied when I was a kid, and if I put myself in the position to be bullied as an adult, I’m sure it would happen. But I don’t run around advocating that people should not make jokes about short people because I happen to encounter some unfortunate instances in my life due to the being short.

What protesters of domestic violence should be doing is trying to raise the esteem of women who feel so bad about themselves that they subject themselves to such a situation, rather than wasting it outside of a K-Mart because of a T-Shirt that most people wouldn’t think twice about. The shirt doesn’t advocate domestic violence, it doesn’t advocate anything actually, humor isn’t like politics, it doesn’t have to be for or against anything, it just has to be funny to someone. If it pisses you off, well like everything else, you’ll have to learn to live with it or not subject yourself to it.

Your 2nd paragraph is all about victim-blaming. Instead of blaming battered women (“they subject themselves to such a situation”), why aren’t you looking at the batterers — those who perpetrate the violence? Are they somehow not responsible for their actions?

If you think the protesters are wasting their time, fine. But I think you missed the mark when you say that the solution is to “raise the esteem of women who feel so bad about themselves that they subject themselves to such a situation.” You’re missing the mark, bigtime.

I know my comments don’t have anything to do with the shirts, but I had to respond to abartonkc’s comment.

freya’s the only person who’s noted that this is a children’s tee, not an adult one, which makes the whole “satire” notion a little fuzzy. A kid isn’t going to get that it’s supposed to be ironic, just maybe that it’s supposed to be funny to shove girls when they bother you. Also, props to ViewFromHere for hitting that nail on the head.
I don’t think anybody is saying a t-shirt is going to directly cause a crime, but it’s not exactly a stellar image to stick on a young kid’s chest.